19th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism opens entries

19th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism opens entries

Call for applications for the 19th edition of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR) of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) opens today, Friday, 4 October 2024. This year’s award is part of the Civic Space Guard Project, to honour and celebrate the courageous efforts of investigative journalists and news media as guards of the civic space.

Professional reporters or team of reporters, whether full-time or freelance, with published stories targeted at the Nigerian audience, may submit their stories by 4pm on Thursday, 24 October 2024.

Since its inception in 2005, the award has recognised outstanding journalists who deliver in-depth stories to prevent or expose corruption in public and private sectors, human rights violations, or regulatory failures in Nigeria across different media genres including; print, online, photo, editorial cartoon, television, and radio.

WSCIJ will deploy its award coding system introduced in 2012 to compile and send submitted entries to an independent panel of media experts and industry professionals for evaluation. The 2024 WSAIR judges will score entries based on the quality of investigation, evidence, human rights elements, ethical reportage, courage, individual creativity, public interest, impact, and presentation. All interested journalists are encouraged to go through the entry criteria for their respective category.

In 2023, WSCIJ received 244 entries, but only 99 entries (print – 29, online – 45, TV – 7, radio – 2, photo – 8, and editorial cartoon – 8) met the criteria for further screening and 10 finalists emerged. So far, the award has produced 126 finalists, 58 Soyinka Laureates, and 13 investigative journalists of the year. It has also made 29 honorary awards for its Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence and the Anti-Corruption/Human Rights Defender Awards. The 19th award ceremony will be held in Lagos on Monday, 9 December, 2024.

Motunrayo Alaka
Executive Director/CEO, WSCIJ